The country was indignant that Fort Sumter was not reinforced. Major
Anderson's supplies were nearly exhausted, and he wanted twenty thousand
men, with equipments and rations. If the Government couldn't afford the
rations--very well: it ought at least to given him the men.
I am speaking of the late rebellion, which GREELEY, HEADLEY, and others
have written up. Although a publishing company at Hartford, Conn., own
most of the facts of the war, which they peddle out only by
subscription, they can give the public but little of the secret history
of the Fort Sumter affair. That remains to be written, while WELLER and
I remain to write it. The Ex-Secretary has gracefully left it to me to
describe the midnight session of the Cabinet at which I chanced to be
present.
I was boarding at the White House at the time, and as President LINCOLN
assured me it would be rather interesting, I was persuaded to attend.
"The fact is, the crisis reminds me," said he, of a little story of a
horse-trot in Arkansas--"
"Sir," interrupted I, "it reminds me of a dozen stories, one of AEsop's
fables, and two hundred lives of CHAUCER."
He was afraid to continue.
As the clock struck twelve, he called the meeting to order and remarked:
"Gentlemen, ANDERSON is in Sumter. The question now is,--what will he do
with it?"
South Carolina was out. BUCHANAN had done nothing. Everywhere was
distrust. (That very day they had refused, on Pennsylvania avenue, to
trust me for a spring overcoat.) STANTON was getting his dark lantern
ready for nightly interviews with SUMNER and WENDELL PHILLIPS in a
vacant lot upon the outskirts of the Capitol. Universal gloom prevailed.
SEWARD opened the discussion. He said it was contemplated to throw four
thousand men into Fort Sumter. We couldn't do it. If we did, it would
only be one of the first throes of a civil conflict, a war long and
bloody, which he would venture to predict might be protracted even to
the extent of ninety days. Were we prepared for that? He would like to
hear from that pure patriot, the Secretary of War, on this point.
Amid murmurs of applause, Gen. CAMERON rose to say that he was wholly
unprepared to make a speech; but he owned a lot of condemned muskets,
which he stood ready to dispose of to the Government at four times their
original cost. He should advise that the Fort be covered with several
thicknesses of Pennsylvania railroad iron. It would protect our gallant
troops, and he was now, as he had always been, in favor of protection.
Besides, he knew parties who could get up a ring in the way of army
blankets.
Mr. CHASE spoke rather thick and fast, but I understood him to pronounce
in favor of that platform which would get the most votes. "If the people
think it ought to be done, why, do it. The country needs taxation, and
is anxious to have me President. I think I can borrow money enough in
Wall street to pay the passage of a moderate number of men to
Charleston, but they mustn't on any account be CHASE men. I don't want
any of my friends killed off before the next Presidential election."
"What the Administration lacks," chimed in BLAIR, "is backbone. Powder
and ball, and blood are my sentiments. Fill all the army and navy
offices with the BLAIR family, and secession is dead."
SEWARD again: "Strengthen Pickens, and let Sumter go. Our soldiers will
find it healthier and more commodious at Pickens. I'll have the
_Powhatan_ sent there forthwith."
Hereupon Mr. GIDEON WELLES woke up and remarked, in a strain of apology,
that be hadn't read his commission yet, but it was his impression that
he was the head of what was called the Navy Department. Coming from an
inland town, he didn't exactly know whether the Secretary of State or
himself had the ordering about of our national vessels; but he rather
thought he would relieve his friend SEWARD of that burden. He had talked
with several old sea-dogs. They all agreed that the success of the plan
depended on its feasibility. Capt. Fox, a private citizen of
Massachusetts, had been down there with a horse and buggy, and reports
that a squad of marines could do the job up in good style.
Mr. BATES was called upon, and stated that strengthening Sumter, without
giving the Southerners four weeks' notice of our intention, would not,
in his opinion, be unconstitutional.
At this juncture Mr. FLOYD (who, having acquired the habit of attending
BUCHANAN'S cabinet meetings, had not quite got over it) put his head in
for a moment to suggest, that if the Black Republican Government would
evacuate all the forts on Southern territory, remunerate his friends for
their expenses, and execute a quit-claim deed of Washington and the
national property to JEFF. DAVIS and other Southern leaders, the
proposition might possibly be accepted, and trouble avoided.